What is a sustainable supply chain?

A sustainable supply chain is one that integrates sustainable, environmentally responsible practices at every stage to protect the people and our planet.

For businesses, this means upholding societal and environmental standards across the entire value chain for their own operations and suppliers’ operations.

This includes issues such as labour conditions, health and safety, greenhouse gas emissions, water security, waste management, deforestation, and much more.

Creating a sustainable supply chain has been growing in importance, with pressures from regulators, investors and customers mounting. Why is that? What are the benefits of a sustainable data centre? And what can the data centre industry do to build green supply chains and go net-zero by 2030?

Why is a sustainable supply chain important?

Sustainable supply chains are increasingly becoming a crucial focal point for many businesses, including data centres. Driven by the outcomes of COP27, organizations are feeling the pressure to have a more robust environmental, social & governance (ESG) strategy, due to a nearly irreversible climate emergency and consumers being more environmentally conscious.

It should go without saying that ensuring more sustainable practices from providers and suppliers can significantly mitigate the long-term effects of climate change; but it also improves overall business efficiency and productivity. Increasing the operational efficiency of data centre buildings can easily translate to cost savings for operators and their customers; not to mention DC providers can gain a competitive advantage by appealing as a more sustainable partner.

Having a sustainable supply chain also enhances resilience to risks associated with meeting ever-increasing ESG compliance requirements. For data centre operators, including Telehouse, achieving sustainability goals is complementary with reaching greater levels of efficiency, contributing to the circular economy and attracting great talent.

How can data centres be more sustainable in their supply chains?

While data centres can adopt a number of strategies to be more sustainable across their own operations, the monitoring and reporting of Scope 3 emissions is vital to assess the impact of activities carried out by partners and suppliers. Although the most difficult to track, these emissions are usually the greatest share of an organization’s carbon footprint.

To help address this, more operators are undertaking the following practices:

  • Defining carbon emissions targets and reviewing emissions from direct, indirect and supply chain sources. Setting these targets encourages operators to develop short and long-term commitments aligned with the initiatives most relevant to their organizations. They should consider embodied carbon, or specifically the CO2 emitted in producing materials, including energy used to extract and transport raw materials, as well as emissions from manufacturing processes.
  • Communicating ESG mandates to the wider supply chain and setting expectations for more sustainable practices. Ensuring good practices are communicated through the supply chain can help data centres drive green procurement, enhance energy efficiency, and reduce emissions.
  • Continued collaboration between data centres and suppliers. An end-to-end and integrated sustainable supply chain can be fostered by sharing data on emissions, consumption and recycling strategies.

The benefits of partnering with a sustainability focused data centre

Partnering with a sustainable data centre provider can bring many benefits to organizations, including:

  • Lower their carbon footprint and assist in meeting sustainability goal
  • Increase appeal to potential customers and investors
  • Provides increased visibility into the company’s IT department’s carbon footprint, which is often hard to measure

Learn more how Telehouse can support your ESG goals by getting in touch with our team. Our experts are always available to help you find the perfect solution.